1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to housings for enclosing computer systems and in particular to cooling fan shroud panels for use with such housings. Still more particularly the present invention relates to a computer system unit which includes an acoustic noise reduction lining within a cooling fan shroud panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern computer systems are becoming increasingly complex and utilize increased amounts of electrical energy. As this complexity increases, more components are placed within the computer systems including peripheral devices such as disk drives, etc. which require additional electrical power and which generate more and more heat.
With the advent of the increased heat developed by such systems, modern computer systems require increased ventilation to move cooling air through the unit. Additionally, such systems are becoming increasingly less tolerant to overheating conditions, particularly if expensive disk drive units are installed. Thus, a failure to provide adequate ventilation through a modern computer system may increase the probability of computer failure due to overheating and may result in damage to the electronics and/or peripheral units. Due to the great expense of these units and the concomitant loss in processing time associated with such failures it is desirable that adequate ventilation be maintained for such systems.
Additionally, as distributed computing systems utilizing multiple units are becoming more common, the modern computer system is being installed in office environments without regard to minimum clearances required to provide adequate ventilation. Additionally, the noise associated with the ventilation of such powerful computing systems represents an additional problem which must be overcome.
It should therefore be apparent that a need exists for a computer system unit which can be adequately ventilated despite the presence of adjacent vertical surfaces and which minimizes the amount of acoustic noise emitted into the office environment.